Tigress Killed on NH565 in NSTR Core

The scourge of road kills in protected areas for wildlife hit the Nagarjunsagar Srisailam tiger reserve (NSTR) with a tigress found dead on Tuesday morning on National Highway 565 passing through the reserve’s core area in Markapur range of Prakasam district.

This is the first reported death of a tiger on a road in the NSTR. Previously, some leopards and other wild animals were killed by speeding traffic but Tuesday’s incident is the first of its kind in many years, the tiger reserve officials said.

Incidentally, the roadkill of the tiger came just a day after a leopard was killed and its body sliced into two halves by a speeding train in Kurnool district along a railway line that too passes through the core area of NSTR, India’s largest tiger reserve that lies in Andhra Pradesh.

The dead tigress was believed to be aged between two and three years.

“There are absolutely no mitigation measures to prevent vehicles from speeding on NH 565 which is a four lane road through the core area of the tiger reserve. There are quite a few tigers in that part of the reserve and unless speed control measures are in place, we may see more such incidents, especially with the tiger numbers rising,” a senior forest official said.

According to the Markapur division deputy director of NSTR, Md Abdul Rawoof Shaik, the dead tigress was noticed by passersby around 7 am who informed forest officials. Srigiripadu forest section officer P. Mahesh Babu reached the spot near on NH-565 road near the Bandla Vagu area, and informed his seniors of the situation.

A team of forest officials along with veterinary doctors investigated the scene of incident, and a post-mortem examination was conducted, samples from the carcass collected and the body of the tiger was incinerated as per the protocols laid down by the National Tiger Conservation Authority.

A case has been registered, and a joint investigation by the forest and police departments is underway to trace the vehicle involved in the hitting of the tigress and escaping from the scene.

Meanwhile, locals expressed concern over repeated wildlife deaths near highways and demanded stricter preventive measures. They stressed the need for stronger wildlife protection mechanisms, speed regulations and warning systems along highways passing through forest and fringe areas to prevent such incidents in the future.

Officials from the neighbouring Amrabad tiger reserve in Telangana, which forms a contiguous forest with NSTR divided by River Krishna, went on alert following the roadkill. Forest officials wrote to the National Highways Authority of India, and the Nagarkurnool district police, to enforce strict speed limits on National Highway 765 which passes through the Amrabad tiger reserve for a distance of about 53 km.

"Though we worked with the NHAI and had 35 speed breakers installed along the road that passes through the core area of Amrabad, vehicles immediately pick up speed and no one follows the speed limit. We are concerned that similar incidents might happen in Amrabad too and called on the NHAI and the police to ensure vehicles passing through Amrabad tiger reserve adhere to the speed limit of 30 kmph,” an official from the reserve told Deccan Chronicle.